Shell Exec: We Need to Shift from Oil

26 January 2005

Reuters. Lord Oxburgh, the chairman of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group in Britain, said at a Greenpeace conference this week that governments should push society towards a world less dependent on fossil fuel given the potentially “disastrous” consequences of climate change.

[He] added that governments needed to act to make renewable and less environmentally harmful energy sources more economical compared to hydrocarbons.

“Shell is an energy company and I would be very surprised if Shell were doing business in the same way in 30 years time as it is today ... It’s difficult to see why big business should be frightened,” Oxburgh said.

The burning of fossil fuels appeared to be causing global warming, Oxburgh added, and this posed a potentially disastrous risk to the world. He urged governments in developed countries to introduce taxes, regulations or plans such as the European Union trading scheme to increase the cost of emitting carbon dioxide, a gas many scientists tie to global warming.

In doing so, he added, technologies such as biofuel, carbon sequestration, the use of hydrogen as a fuel and wave power would displace the use of oil, gas and coal.

Lord Oxburgh (earlier post) has been outspoken about the need for carbon sequestration and the need to move off of a fossil fuel platform. His point about business is exactly to the point. (Oxburgh, as an interesting coincidence, was a graduate school classmate of Prof. Ken Deffeyes, author of Hubbert's Peak and an upcoming follow-on.)